Apparatus for measuring the position of a vehicle or a surface thereof

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for measuring the position of a vehicle or a surface thereof on a roadway. The apparatus comprises at least one radar transmitter, which is arranged in a transmitting position above the plane of the roadway and transmits radar beams downwardly, a plurality of radar receivers, which are distributed above the plane of the roadway in different receiving positions at distances from one another, receive reflections of the radar beams from beneath, and convert the reflections into a received signal, and an evaluation device, which is connected to the radar transmitter and the radar receivers and is configured to measure the said position from the transmitting position, the receiving positions and the received signals.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus for measuring a position of a vehicle or a surface thereof on a roadway, comprising:
 at least one radar transmitter, which is arranged in a transmitting position above the plane of the roadway and transmits radar beams downwardly, 
 a plurality of radar receivers, which are distributed above the plane of the roadway in different receiving positions at distances from one another, receive reflections of the radar beams from beneath, and each convert said reflections into a received signal, and 
 an evaluation device, which is connected to the radar transmitter and the radar receivers and is configured to compare with one another signal strengths of the received signals of the different radar receivers and thereby determine at least one radar receiver which has a weaker or a strongest received signal and measure said position of the vehicle or the surface thereof from the transmitting position as well as from the receiving position of the at least one determined radar receiver. 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the radar transmitter and the radar receivers lie in a common plane crossing the roadway. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the radar transmitter transmits pulsed radar beams controlled by transmitted pulses and the received signals consequently contain received pulses, wherein the evaluation device is configured to take into account for said position measuring only those received signals of which the received pulses lie within a predefined time window after a transmitted pulse. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device is configured to determine in said comparison those radar receivers which have a weaker received signal. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the radar transmitter transmits the radar beams directionally in a primary transmitting direction, which is inclined relative to the vertical, and in that the evaluation device is configured to determine in said comparison that radar receiver which has the strongest received signal. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein each radar receiver receives reflections predominantly in a primary receiving direction, which is inclined relative to the vertical, wherein the primary transmitting direction and the primary receiving directions lie in a common plane. 
     
     
       7. The apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein the primary receiving directions are parallel to one another and to the primary transmitting direction in order to determine the position of a substantially vertical surface. 
     
     
       8. The apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein the primary receiving directions are parallel to one another and are inclined to the primary transmitting direction in a mirror-inverted manner relative to the vertical, in order to determine the position of a substantially horizontal surface. 
     
     
       9. The apparatus according to  claim 7 , wherein the radar transmitter transmits pulsed radar beams controlled by transmitted pulses and the received signals consequently contain received pulses, wherein the evaluation device is configured to take into account for said position measuring only those received signals of which the received pulses lie within a predefined time window after a transmitted pulse, and wherein the evaluation device is configured to additionally take time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses and to determine from this the distance between the surface and one or more radar receivers, in order to improve the position measurement. 
     
     
       10. The apparatus according to  claim 9 , wherein the time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses are pulse time-of-flight measurements. 
     
     
       11. The apparatus according to  claim 9 , wherein the time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses are taken in accordance with the FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) method. 
     
     
       12. The apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein the primary transmitting and receiving directions of the radar transmitter and of the radar receivers can be changed during operation. 
     
     
       13. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the radar transmitter and the radar receivers are each formed by a radar transceiver, which can be operated selectively as a radar transmitter or radar receiver in code, time or frequency multiplex. 
     
     
       14. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein a frequency of the radar beams is 1 GHz to 100 GHz. 
     
     
       15. The apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein a frequency of the radar beams is 50 GHz to 100 GHz. 
     
     
       16. The apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein the radar transmitter and the radar receivers are mounted on a mounting gantry spanning the roadway transversely. 
     
     
       17. The apparatus according to  claim 8 , wherein the radar transmitter transmits pulsed radar beams controlled by transmitted pulses and the received signals consequently contain received pulses, wherein the evaluation device is configured to take into account for said position measuring only those received signals of which the received pulses lie within a predefined time window after a transmitted pulse, and wherein the evaluation device is configured to additionally take time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses and to determine from this the distance between the surface and one or more radar receivers, in order to improve the position measurement. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus according to  claim 17 , wherein the time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses are pulse time-of-flight measurements. 
     
     
       19. The apparatus according to  claim 17 , wherein the time-of-flight measurements between transmitted and received pulses are taken in accordance with the FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) method. 
     
     
       20. The apparatus according to  claim 12 , wherein the primary transmitting and receiving directions of the radar transmitter and of the radar receivers can be changed by means of phase-controlled antenna arrays or an arbitrary selection of individual directional antennas.